Allen Carr’s Easy Way To Stop Smoking

A book reflection by Leigh Martinuzzi 

Allen Carr is a disciplined man, always has been. As a professional and successful accountant for many years, life was good. There was only one matter that caused him a great deal of pain and suffering – his addiction to nicotine. When he eventually quit smoking, with ease, he decided to go out and help others. He was driven to help cure the world’s smokers.

In Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking, he explains how he went from smoking 100 cigarettes a day to zero without suffering. For 30 years Allen was a chain-smoker. He couldn’t do anything without first lighting up. As nicotine addiction progresses, it takes over our lives until it eventually destroys our life.

Smoking is a progressive disease. Tobacco and the addiction may seem to be slow at first. However, that is part of the trap. Once you’re hooked, it is incredibly hard to escape. Allen didn’t sign up for a life of black-depression. No one does. Including me.

I fell for the nicotine trap at what I’d consider a very young age. I was a teenager. I remember inhaling that first puff of smoke. Coughing my guts up and then going back for more. When you think about it, it’s stupid. In those teenage and vulnerable years in the efforts to fit in and search for our place in the world, we do silly things that are not always followed on by positive outcomes.

The addiction started out mild at first, at least that’s what I thought, but it got hold of me. More afternoons sneaking into the back paddocks with a mate to light up. It became more frequent. Not only on the weekends when I could hide it from my parents but after school, in the morning on the way to school, during school. If I had a chance to light up, I would.

There was no hiding it. I was ignorant to think I could hide the smell away with a spray of a deodorant can and some wriggles gum. Soon I was discovered. It didn’t stop me. It permitted me to smoke at home. Almost 20 years later and after many attempts to quit smoking I failed. I am still a smoker. I could not break the chain of nicotine addiction.

Allen Carr talks to smokers from experience. He knows of the pain and depression that results from this filthy ritual. After many failed attempts and years of trying he eventually found a way to stop – with ease. No withdrawal pangs, no cravings, no sadness. He describes the Easy Way as a joyful process. Now if you’re a smoker, you’d probably find this hard to believe. I did.

His approach isn’t about sharing the horror stories of smoking or all the guts and gore. He doesn’t believe smoking is a habit and that is why it’s difficult to kick it, although he does refer to it as the smoking habit. His approach identifies the crux of the nicotine addiction, and that is the psychological and mental brainwashing.

Nicotine addiction is the problem. It takes only one cigarette to get hooked. The issue we have with stopping is that when nicotine leaves the body, we crave more. It is this addiction that keeps us in the smoking trap. The other issues are the fear we have of suffering that results from not smoking or the “perceived” pleasure or missed opportunities to enjoy smoking.

As soon as we put out one cigarette, the nicotine begins to leave the body. According to Allen, it takes only three weeks to have the nicotine to exit the body. And that is the hardest few weeks. I experienced a profound shift around the three-week mark. After that, it was all psychological. And it still is.

I listened to this through audible which I think is the perfect fit for this content. I stopped smoking for nine months. It felt incredible not to be a slave to the nicotine monster. In full transparency I let things slip. I decided to have smoked one night out when I had a few drinks – slowly the addiction crept back into my life. However, I still listen to this book. I haven’t given up hope. I am a non-smoker.

As Allen states in this book, we never needed nicotine before we started smoking why should we “need” it now. There is no cigarette that we genuinely enjoy – it’s filthy, it sticks, it makes us drained of energy, clarity, nerves, old and unhealthy. I can’t think of anything worse. We believe it’s something we enjoy but the tricks of nicotine on our mind are powerful. We will appreciate life much more significantly without it.

For anyone that has this addiction, there is not one book I’d recommend more highly. It takes you on a journey right up to the date you smoke your last cigarette and then after that – never again. Freedom

If this book sounds of interest you can purchase Allen Carr’s Easy Way To Stop Smoking here.

Please leave your thoughts, comments & questions below.

Peace, passion and purpose…

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